Il boia scarlatto (1965)

Director:

Massimo Pupillo

Writers:

Romano Migliorini (story)
Roberto Natale (story)

Release Date:

28 November 1965 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

He was a homicidal maniac who LIVED TO KILL!

Plot:

A photographer and his models go to an old, abandoned castle to shoot some sexy covers for horror novels...

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Photographer | Model | Spider | Burned Alive

Cast

Mickey Hargitay	...	Travis Anderson
Walter Brandi	...	Rick (as Walter Brandt)
Luisa Baratto	...	Edith (as Louise Barret)
Rita Klein	...	Nancy
Alfredo Rizzo	...	Daniel Parks (as Alfred Rice)
Barbara Nelli	...	Suzy (as Barbara Nelly)
Moa Tahi	...	Kinojo
Femi Benussi	...	Annie (as Femi Martin)
Ralph Zucker	...	Dermott - The photographer
Nando Angelini	...	Perry (as Nik Angel)
Albert Gordon
Gino Turini		(as John Turner)
Roberto Messina		(as Robert Messenger)

Also Known As:

A Tale of Torture
Bloody Pit of Horror (USA)
Crimson Executioner
Il castello di Artena
Some Virgins for the Hangman
The Castle of Artena
The Red Hangman (USA) (promotional title)
The Scarlet Executioner
The Scarlet Hangman
Virgins for the Hangman

Runtime:

87 min | USA:74 min (cut version)

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:18 (nf) | UK:(Banned) (1967) | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Balsorano Castle, L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy

Company:

International Entertainment

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: On this fifth day of December in the year of our Lord sixteen hundred and forty-eight, by the power vested in us by our noble sovereign, this tribunal of Artena sentences you, the Crimson Executioner, to death. You will die by one of the very instruments you devised to torture and kill your innocent victims...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Edited into Extra Weird (2003) (V)

Classic midnight horror

Models and photogs go to an 'abandoned' castle to take pictures for a bunch of book covers and find a man living there. He turns out to be the reincarnation of the Crimson Executioner...and an insane lunatic.

OK, it's hardly original, but it's still great.

The torture devices were imaginative even if the low budget betrayed the execution. (harhar)

Mickey Hargitay was never the best actor, but he was born for this role. And the ladies played the whole brain dead bimbo routine to perfection. (At least I hope they were playing.)

And I even liked the music. Creepy atmospheric stuff. I'm still trying to find a soundtrack. Really.

The last scene was a corker. Decent camera work too. See the DVD if you can, it's COMPLETELY uncut. It also has semi-related scenes from Mondo Cane II as an extra.